More than 14 months after William Fulton vanished from Alaska, the former Spenard business owner resurfaced in a federal courtroom in Anchorage on May 31, 2012.

His March 2011 disappearance had come just as his cover as an undercover informant who helped the FBI infiltrate a Fairbanks-based anti-government militia was about to be blown.

Yet for all the turmoil Fulton subjected himself to, he has emerged in the federal weapons and murder conspiracy case against militia members Schaeffer Cox, Coleman Barney and Lonnie Vernon -- not as a witness for the prosecution, but for the defense. It's an unusual position for the man who until now had made his career chasing bail jumpers, selling weapons and military surplus goods, protecting politicians, and once, handcuffing a journalist at a public gathering for a political candidate.